UPDATE: Police have arrested a woman in connection with the ambush. (AP)

The son of a woman linked to a firearm used in the Christmas Eve shooting of four volunteer firefighters in Webster, NY, said Friday that the weapon had been stolen from his sister’s car, according to a report at democratandchronicle.com.

A report at usatoday.com says that officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Thursday that criminal charges against at least one, perhaps both, of the women were imminent.

New York State police said Thursday that gunman William Spengler Jr., died of a self-inflicted shot to the head and wasn’t hit by return fire from a police officer, according to an Associated Press report at 680news.com in Toronto. Investigators still hadn’t made a positive identification of the body found in Spengler’s burned house, but said they believe the remains are those of his 67-year-old sister, Cheryl Spengler, who also lived there.

Spengler was not shy about discussing his role in a previous killing, according to a New York Times report in which a woman who bought the cottage next door this summer said that he recounted why he had killed his paternal grandmother with a hammer in the house she and her boyfriend had just bought.

Meanwhile, a South Carolina fire department will be putting bullet proof vests into rotation for some calls, according to wspa.com, in response to the incident in New York.

The town of Webster now begins the first of four straight days of wakes and funerals for their fallen firefighters, according to wgrz.com in Buffalo.